Kaitlan Collins, CNN’s Wednesday night town hall host with Donald Trump, was put in journalists’ purgatory after she tried to blame the former president for the uprising at the Capitol.
In what became an instant Trump Classic, the former president pulled notes from his coat pocket refuting her claims.
It happened as Collins questioned why it took Trump so long to tell supporters to leave the Capitol that fateful day, insinuating that he wanted the riot in the Capitol to continue. Trump was ready.
“When they went to the Capitol and broke into the Capitol, smashed windows and injured police officers, why did it take you three hours to tell them to go home?” Collins asked.
‘I don’t believe it was. Oh, let me take it out. I need to get it out,” he replied, reaching into his coat pocket to get timestamps for his public statements.
“On January 5, the day before, I said, ‘Please support our police and law enforcement in the Capitol. They are really on our country’s side. Stay calm!'”
Watch the incredible moment:
Trump simply pulls out receipts to refute Kaitlin Collins’ claims about CNN’s town hall… and the audience cheers!
This is NOT going the way CNN wanted it to. pic.twitter.com/7byCeFkCHr
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) May 11, 2023
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Trump defends his actions on January 6
At the rally leading up to the January 6 riot at the Capitol, Trump stated, “I know everyone here will soon be marching to the Capitol to peaceful and patriotic Let your voice be heard.”
A timeline of events published by NPR shows protesters rioting at 1:00 PM, while a breakthrough through the actual barricades and the Capitol took place sometime between 1:30 and 2:00 PM.
Thanks to Elon Musk, we can see Trump’s Twitter feed again — the place where his most fervent supporters could most easily reach him during the riots.
I ask everyone in the Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the law and our wonderful men and women in Blue. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021
About an hour later, he released a video urging people to go home. This is what Collins is referring to, ignoring Trump’s previous tweets and comments.
Trump referenced that video during CNN’s town hall.
“If you remember I did a video right outside the Oval Office in the rose garden, and I’m very proud of that video. I had no script. I don’t need a script, unlike a certain person in there,” he told Collins, joking to President Biden, who has aides who give him notes at events telling him where to sit and when to stand.
Sadly, Trump was banned from Twitter along with his video of him begging rioters to stop.
President Trump refutes CNN’s lie on stage. Bring out the receipts!
This man is unstoppable!pic.twitter.com/xds4T1nxxN
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) May 11, 2023
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Trump will pardon the vast majority of January 6 protesters
In addition to defending his actions on Jan. 6, Trump reiterated a campaign promise to pardon those who remained peaceful during the riot but still ended up in the dragnet.
But he did note, as everyone acknowledges, that some of those involved did indeed have bad intentions and did indeed commit crimes that day. However, those people were in short supply and certainly won’t get clemency from a DC jury.
“I’m inclined to pardon many of them,” Trump said of the protesters. “I can’t say for everyone, because a few probably — they got out of control.”
CNN crowd cheers as Trump promises to pardon many people arrested on Jan. 6
“You have two standards of law in this country… And then what they did to these people, they persecuted these people. And yes, my answer is, when I come in… it’s going to be a big part of… pic.twitter.com/E2TniiiKMn
— The watchful fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 11, 2023
Trump noted that BLM and Antifa protesters who looted businesses and burned cities for months prior to the uprising at the Capitol were treated with velvet gloves, but the Jan. 6 rioters were met with the full wrath of the law.
“I’m not trying to justify anything, but you have two standards of justice in this country,” he claimed. “And what they’ve done… what they’ve done to so many people is nothing. Nothing. And then what they did this people, they persecuted these people.”
Trump added that many of them are “great people.”
Collins pressed Trump to pardon the four Proud Buys who had just been convicted of seditious conspiracy. The Republican front-runner for the 2024 nomination said so look at the case but suggested they may not have received a fair trial.
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